Coppola’s ‘Godfather III’ Ready for Dec. 25 Release

All the magazine editors who took a leap of faith by featuring stars from “The Godfather, Part III” on their November and December covers can relax.

So can the 1,800 theater owners who guaranteed a minimum 12-week run for the movie.

Paramount Pictures executives announced today that they will release “Godfather III” on Christmas Day after all.

In doing so, Paramount defied the common wisdom in Hollywood, which held that its perfectionist director, Francis Coppola, would refuse to turn over the 2-hour, 40-minute epic in time for a Christmas release. Even Paramount’s own marketing department was poised last week for either a Christmas or Easter release.

But after Coppola and Paramount executives saw this film last weekend at a screening in San Francisco, they agreed that the film could be released on Christmas Day. On Sunday, the clock ran out for any changes that Coppola could make. In the coming weeks, technical work on the film will be completed and 1,800 prints will be produced for shipment to theaters.

One and a half years in the making, “Godfather III” is one of the most talked-about films of the decade. The first two “Godfather” movies won Academy Awards for best picture and have brought in revenues of about $800 million from theaters, TV and sales of videocassettes.

Originally budgeted at $44 million, the total cost--which included months of filming on location in Italy and New York--has risen to close to $55 million.